advice and anecdotes from a retired psychiatrist (shrink)

gun legislation

All those guys whom we elected to debate issues our country face have been locked in an adolescent food fight for several years. They are our employees, and are paid reasonably well. I contend they are not doing the job for which we pay them, but we don’t seem to be able to fire them. Statesmanship and decorum is lacking. Their so called debates have even included personal insults. It reminds me of the debates we had in grade school which were not designed to determine who or what was best, but rather who was worse. Most polls suggest that our congressional representatives are tied with each other for the honor of being the most inept, as they are the most unpopular congress in our history.

Independent thinking and deliberation are a thing of the past. On most substantive issues members of each party vote the “party line” with no apparent questioning of what is the most rational position on an issue. Since all Republicans think one way and all Democrats agree with each other, the whole lot would appear to fail the test suggested by Walter Lippmann that when “all think alike, no one thinks very much.” In that sense, they are more like a gang than a deliberative body.

It now appears that this august body has reached a new low in cynical disregard for the people who they are sworn to represent. The leadership has refused to deliberate or vote on a bill which is very important to a majority of their citizenry, apparently in order to avoid taking responsibility for their position. It is understandable that they would want to keep their positions secret since even a vast majority of republicans want a vote on this bill. The only logical conclusion is that the will of the NRA is more important than the will of the congressional representatives’ constituents.

But let us not forget the Democrat’s role in this subversion of the will of the people. Both parties will blame the other for refusing to negotiate in a civilized respectful manner, but no matter who is to blame (I suspect both are ) they don’t seem to talk to each other anymore. The Democrats have said to hell with decorum and are engaged in a sit in within the house chambers. Perhaps this is progress, an indicator that they have matured beyond preadolescence and have adopted a strategy more popular with college age kids.

The current situation could possibly be resolved by luring the Republicans into the house chamber with the Democrats and locking the door with the admonition that could not come out until differences were resolved. There is the risk; however, that that this could degenerate into an out and out physical brawl which has some precedent in other countries.

Since facts about the issues surrounding guns are hard to find if one only listens to the politicians, I found a video that presents “just the facts.” Enjoy, and let your representative know what you think.